UK Visa

Back in October I had written about the new policy change with the UK government, which would allow for Indians to transit the UK without the need for a Direct Airside Transit Visa or a regular Visa, as long as they had a visa for the USA or Canada. Now, I wasn’t sure about this myself because this did not update on the UK Government’s website as quickly as I hoped it would. Heathrow is one of the busiest airports around the world, but clearly they were not a favourite for many Indians because of the high costs to even transit the airport. Apart from the other issues that go with it, such as an Air Passenger Duty which is…

Regular readers of the blog must remember the incident where my passport got stuck with the British consulate in Mumbai and I could not make it to a meeting in time in Europe. This was the result of a long time policy of the UK, which ensured that Indians had a transit visa or a visa of some sort for the UK, if they were just transit through the country, and were not going to enter the borders. The policy did not apply if you were transiting to go to the US/Australia/New Zealand, or had a valid residence permit in the EU. This morning, I got word that the need for a transit visa for the UK is being withdrawn…

One of the by-products of being a British colony was that India got to be a part of the Commonwealth, but that’s where the vanity of it stopped. The UK government has of course considered it to be mandatory to make visa very expensive for Indians to access their country, and as per what I read the visa cost went up thrice over the first half of this year itself. The money United Kingdom asks for a 6-month visa, the United States of American would usually grant a 10-year multiple-visit visa to Indian passport holders. However, the UK seems to be surely losing the plot and the intent to get more Indian passengers who seem to be going over despite…